Enforcing Home

by A. American

  Rolling into the armory, we were met by Sheffield and Livingston. “Well, well, look what the cat dragged in,” Livingston said with a smile.

  I popped my head out of the turret, “Dr. Livingston I presume?” Livingston smiled as I dropped down in the truck.

  “Morning Captain,” Sarge said as he got out of the truck.

  Sheffield stuck his hand out, “Morning Linus.” Sarge shook his hand as the two headed for the building.

  Livingston was talking with Thad and Danny when I finally extracted myself from the truck. Livingston looked at me. “Morning Sheriff,” he said with a big smile. In reply I gave him the finger.

  “So what’s up?” I asked.

  “Let’s go inside,” Livingston replied.

  Following him into the armory, I noticed an older black man sitting in a chair against the wall. What struck me about him was the crease in the jeans he wore, like they’d just been pressed. He had a hat pulled down over his eyes and his arms crossed over his chest, like he was asleep. A tooth pick was hanging limply from his lips.

  “Who’s that?” I asked Livingston.

  “You’ll meet him later; we’ve got bigger issues at the moment.”

  In the conference room it felt stuffy; the lighting was dim as well, giving an overall depressing feeling to the place. As we sat down, the lights in the room finally flickered to life.

  Sheffield looked up, “About damn time.”

  “Alright, we’re here; what’s up?” Sarge asked.

  “Where’s your crew?” Livingston asked.

  “They were up all night, so we left them behind,” Sarge replied.

  Sheffield raised his eyebrows, “Trouble?”

  “Nothing we can’t handle.”

  Sheffield looked at Livingston, “You want to lead off?”

  Livingston opened a folder in front of him. “First the bad news; those buses of DHS prisoners never made it to Frostproof.”

  “What?” I asked.

  “We received a radio call from Frostproof, wondering if we had any information about that. We sent out a heavy patrol from our end; and they sent one from theirs. In an effort to prevent the convoy from having to drive through heavily populated areas, they were taking a longer route, using highway 33 out of Groveland.

  “We found the buses on Fussell Road just north of Polk City. The buses were shot to shit and burned. One of the gun trucks was still on scene. We were able to account for eleven troops KIA on scene with six MIA.” Livingston closed the folder, “this was a very well coordinated complex ambush.”

  Sarge sat listening, rolling a pencil on the table, “Do we have any idea who pulled it off?”

  “We found several fighting positions with mountains of brass, and wire for command-detonated devices. It had to be other DHS assets.”

  “Were there any DHS casualties?”

  “There were several corpses on the buses, but they were burned so badly we couldn’t tell much about them.”

  Sarge rolled the pencil across the table, “So these assholes are on the loose again.”

  “It looks that way,” Sheffield added.

  “You think they’re headed back here?” Danny asked.

  Sarge looked across the table, “I can guarantee they are; those assholes are wanting some payback.”

  “We don’t know where they are or what they’re up to. We’ve discussed this with Frostproof; and we think that it would be unlikely that they would try to return here. We believe they are linking up with additional DHS units,” Sheffield said.

  “Of course they linked up; we assume that. Whoever ambushed the convoy had their shit together; and you can bet your ass we’ll see them again,” Sarge said.

  “Great; just what we need with the trouble we’re having now,” I said.

  “What’s up?” Livingston asked.

  “They’re just a local group throwing their weight around; nothing we can’t handle,” Sarge said.

  “Sure you don’t need some help?”

  Sarge waved him off. “Nah; we can handle these dipshits. Hell, we’ve already killed six of them.”

  “Seven,” I corrected him. Sarge looked at me, “The bees killed number seven.”

  “Oh yeah, forgot about that; damndest thing I ever saw,” Sarge replied with a smile.

  “Bees killed him?” Livingston asked, a nervous look on his face.

  Sheffield waved a hand, “I don’t want to know about this shit right now.”

  “While we’re on the bad news train, there’s something else we need to talk about,” Doc said.

  “We’re all ears,” Sheffield replied, thankful for the change in direction.

  “I saw some people earlier today that I’m fairly certain were carrying TB.”

  “TB?” Sheffield nearly shouted.

  “I’m not sure which form it is, but I’m reasonably certain it’s TB. You need to spread the word to your people.”

  “What can we do about it?” Livingston asked.

  “Right now the only treatment is not catching it. Washing hands is a big one of course. You should have your people in particulate masks if they’re interacting with the public; you won’t know who has it. Anyone coughing should be a concern; but that’s the only thing you’ll probably notice.”

  Livingston looked at Sheffield, “Should we quarantine people?”

  Sarge laughed, “How do you propose to do that? Where you going to put them, how you going to feed them?”

  “It would be the best course of action, but I don’t think it’s very practical in the current environment,” Doc added.

  “We’ll have to find a solution to this situation; we can’t simply allow infected people to move about freely,” Sheffield added.

  “We don’t have the resources to confine anyone; if you choose to go that route it’s totally on you,” I said.

  “We’ll figure something out. But for now we’ll spread the word here in town, and you should do the same as well.”

  “We will; but my biggest concern at the moment is the DHS issue. If these guys come back looking for revenge it’s going to get pretty hairy,” I replied.

  “We’ve already got an issue we’re dealing with; we don’t need this right now,” Danny said.

  “Right now we don’t know where these guys from the busses are going. If anyone sees them or thinks they do, we need to pass the word, immediately,” Livingston said.

  “We’ll keep an eye out on our end; anything else?” Sarge asked.

  Sheffield looked at Livingston, “Go get Cecil.”

  Livingston left the room and returned with the old man I saw sitting outside. “This is Cecil Montgomery,” Livingston said; then he introduced all of us to him. “Cecil is going to oversee the planting of crops. He’s got a tractor, and said he’ll lend his tractor if we supply the fuel.”

  “That’s great news; we’ve got some plants going as well,” Thad added.

  “We have a lot to get going if we want to try and feed these folks,” Cecil said.

  “How are you going to protect the crops once they’re planted?” Sarge asked.

  “We’ll handle that,” Livingston said.

  “What do you need from us then? You wouldn’t be telling us about this if you didn’t need something,” Sarge said.

  Sheffield shifted in his seat, “We do need something from you. We need Morgan to handle the civilian law enforcement issues here in town.”

  My head snapped around, “What? What’s wrong with your Sheriff? You’ve got one here in town.”

  “He’s missing,” Livingston said.

  “Missing?” Sarge asked.

  “We don’t know where he is. He disappeared a couple of days ago; we’re looking for him, but no one h
as seen him.”

  “No one’s admitting to it,” Sarge shot back.

  “Right now we have no reason to believe anything underhanded has happened to him; he’s simply missing. What we need from you is to come to town every couple of days to deal with any issues that come up. We’ll handle detaining anyone if the need arises; but you’ll have to come to town to deal with them,” Sheffield said.

  I listened to what he had to say, growing more and more irritated. “This is bullshit; I don’t have time for this crap. You guys hung this deal on me, giving me an enormous area to oversee; and I reluctantly accepted it. Now you want me to have to come down here every other day; we have enough to do without this crap.”

  “Look, we need to keep things separated; we as the military can’t get into civilian law enforcement. That’s where you come in,” Sheffield replied.

  “Name a new Sheriff, pick out a new one.”

  “We thought about that; but for now, you’re it.”

  I thought about it for a minute, “Then just call us on the radio when you have something that needs attention. I don’t have time to ride down here just to see if you have something that needs my attention.” Thinking about it a little more, I added, “you need a judge; that’s what you need. I shouldn’t be the one making decisions on what to do with people caught messing up.”

  “We’re working on that as well,” Livingston replied.

  “Anything else?” I asked.

  “Cecil here will need some help; was hoping you guys could assist,” Livingston replied.

  Sarge looked over, “What can we do for you Cecil?”

  “We might need some fertilizer; and I could use a bigger disc. I have a forty-eight incher, but a sixty would be better.”

  “We’ll look around and see what we can find,” Sarge replied.

  “I think I know where one is,” Danny offered.

  Sarge slapped the table, “There you go; we’ll round it up and get it down here. Gentlemen, if we’re done here we’ve got plenty of work to tend to.”

  “That’s all for now,” Sheffield replied.

  We filed out of the room, and could hear the generator powering the lights inside humming out in the maintenance building. Livingston came out and said something to one of his NCOs, and soon it was silenced. Cecil came out and Sarge waved him over.

  “You’re going to try and plant enough to feed these folks?” He asked.

  “We’ll do our best; someone needs to do something.”

  “If there is anything we can do, just let us know.”

  Cecil removed his hat. “I have another idea.” Looking back, he said, “but these boys don’t want to hear it.”

  “What’s that?” I asked.

  “You boys is from up Umatilla way, right?” I nodded. “You know the old orange juice plant?” Again I nodded. “You know about the power plant there, right?”

  “Yeah, they have a small gas turbine there don’t they?” I asked.

  Cecil nodded, “Sure do; and it was off line when everything went to hell. I bet it would run.”

  “So you want to try and restart the plant?” Sarge asked. Cecil nodded.

  “That would be a lot of work. Morgan might know a little about it, but the rest of us damn sure don’t,” Danny said.

  Cecil looked at me, “You an electrician?”

  “I was for a long time; worked on gas turbines around the country for several years.”

  “And you worked for the power company,” Danny added.

  “For a little while,” I replied to Danny. Then I looked back at Cecil, “but I don’t know anything about that plant.”

  Cecil smiled, “I do; maintained it for years before it was shut down.”

  “Really?” Sarge said, rubbing his chin. “You know it inside and out then?”

  “Like my wife’s ass in the dark,” Cecil said with a smile.

  Sarge smiled, “I think we’re going to get along just fine.”

  “What you guys are talking about would take a lot of work. We’d have to do a shitload of line work, opening switches and whatnot to regulate where the power goes. It would take a small army,” I said.

  “It wouldn’t be that hard; open a few switches, maybe replace a few transformers, and we could have some power,” Cecil said.

  “What about the gas? You said it was a gas turbine; I assume you mean natural gas,” Thad asked.

  Cecil nodded, “Indeed it is.” He leaned in a little closer, looking around, “did you know there’s still gas flowing?”

  “What? How could there still be gas?” Danny asked.

  “It isn’t everywhere, but it is still flowing in places. I’ve seen it,” Cecil replied.

  “Alright, before we get too far ahead of ourselves on this, we’ll get you a disc and bring it up here in a few days. I’d like you to go with us to the plant so we could look at it and see if it’s even possible. You can show us the gas too,” Sarge said.

  Cecil smiled, “Sounds good to me. You fellers get me a disc, and I’ll get some crops planted.”

  We headed for the truck; it was time to get back home. Thad came up beside me as I walked. “I been thinking Morgan; remember the day we saw them sick folks at the barricade? Tyler was there with the kids; they were playing with those kids. If it is TB, they could be sick.”

  I looked around, “Where’s Doc? We need to talk to him about this, and see what he thinks.”

  Doc was waiting for us at the truck. Thad told him the same thing he’d said to me, and Doc thought about it for a minute. “You’re not going to like it, but we need to quarantine them, keep them away from everyone for a couple of weeks.”

  “Is that really necessary?” I asked.

  “At the moment it’s all we can do; if they are carrying TB, they’re still in the incubation period. They would not be symptomatic yet, and making others sick.”

  I sighed, “Alright. When we get back I’ll give them the news; they should be fine, but it is better safe than sorry.”

  All I could think about on the ride back was having to tell Tyler and Brandy that we were locking them into their house. The thought of taking someone’s freedom like that was hard. I know if I were the one receiving the news, it damn sure wouldn’t go down easy. I surely hoped they would understand. I was sitting behind the SAW, scanning the sides of the road; so I never really saw any of it.

  Rolling through the gate, I waved at Jamie as we passed. She was smiling, but the smile slowly faded; guess I wasn’t smiling back. Sarge went to Danny’s house, Brandy was probably there. After climbing out of the truck, Sarge asked, “You want me to do it?”

  “No, I need to do it. Let’s go see if they’re here.”

  Walking up to the house, Jeff was sitting on the porch looking rough. Both eyes were black, and his lip was swollen. I stopped on the step, “How you feeling man?”

  He stared straight ahead, “Like shit.”

  “Don’t sweat it brother, it all worked out,” Danny said.

  Jeff looked down at the ground. “I didn’t even see them; they snuck right up on me.”

  “It’s alright; we’ll deal with them soon enough,” I replied.

  He looked at me with a look I’d never seen before, hate maybe. I wasn’t sure, but it was intense. “I want to be there.”

  I nodded and went into the house. I could hear Brandy out on the back porch talking to Bobbie. I went out there with the guys in tow. As I stepped out the back door I looked for Doc. He was behind Sarge, and I motioned for him to come up.

  Looking at Bobbie, I asked, “Where’s Mel?”

  “She’s at your house doing something with the girls.”

  Looking at Brandy, I let out a long breath. “Brandy, where’s Tyler?”

  S
he pointed down to the pond; he was there fishing with the kids. I called out to him and waved for him to come over.

  “What’s wrong?” She asked.

  “I’ll explain it when Tyler gets here.”

  Tyler came bounding up the stairs. “What’s up?” He asked, looking at those assembled.

  I paused for a moment, not knowing exactly what to say, how to say it. “Remember the other day at the barricade, the people that were there?” He nodded, but seemed unable to speak. “Doc thinks they have TB; your little ones ran out and played with them, remember?” He nodded again.

  “Is there something wrong?” Brandy asked.

  “I don’t know exactly how to say this, but we’re going to need you guys to stay in your house for two weeks. If they are infected, we need to make sure the kids didn’t contract it. We can’t have that spreading here.”

  Tyler stood motionless, taking it in. Brandy seemed to panic.

  “Why?” She asked, looking at Doc. “Do you think they’re sick?”

  “We don’t know; and it’s just a precaution. It’s only for two weeks,” Doc replied.

  “We’ll bring you food and anything else you need. It’s just best for everyone here,” I said.

  “Tyler, you OK with this?” Sarge asked.

  Tyler looked at him and nodded. “Yeah. I, I understand why.” He extended his hand to Brandy. “Come on; let’s go home.”

  Brandy rose to her feet, taking the kids by the hand, and started towards the door. She stopped and looked back; tears were already staining her cheeks.

  “It’ll be OK, Miss Brandy; we’ll take care of you. If you need anything at all, just let me know,” Thad said with a smile.